AIDS Memorial Park Dedicated In New York On Worlds AIDS Day

This week New York Parks Commissioner Mitchell Silver announced the official name for the AIDS Memorial Park in the West Village: The New York City AIDS Memorial Park at St. Vincent’s Triangle.

The memorial “stands at the crossroads of the richly historical West Village,” said Silver in a statement. “Here, we honor and celebrate St. Vincent’s Hospital’s more than 150 years of service to our city, as well as the countless New Yorkers impacted by AIDS: those we have lost, those who live with HIV/AIDS, and those who continue to battle against fear and ignorance.”

“Naming the park the New York City AIDS Memorial Park at St. Vincent’s Triangle appropriately acknowledges both the ongoing history of AIDS that the memorial commemorates, and St. Vincent’s Hospital, which was an important local institution that played a critical role in the history of the epidemic. Neither should be forgotten,” said Greenwich Village resident Robert Woodworth.

Mayor Bill de Blasio “has long been a champion of people living with HIV/AIDS and the name he has conferred on this new city park and future home to the New York City AIDS Memorial is a visible reminder that underscores the critical impact of the AIDS epidemic in New York City’s history and supports expanded efforts to combat its continued persistence today,” reads the statement on the Memorial Park’s website.

A part of the park was already open but the actual memorial will be unveiled on World AIDS Day, December 1.